SAN ANTONIO – About 4.6 million pounds of gift wrap is produced in the U.S. every year, and half of that is sent to the landfill.
Remember the less we send to the landfill, the less carbon that is released into our environment, which can combat climate change!
Have no fear, there are some sustainable options you can use.
Throughout the year, I save brown paper bags from our local grocery stores. Some are fancy and even put out holiday themes.
The easiest thing I do is put gifts in bags with a little bit of tissue paper. Make sure your tissue paper is 100% tissue paper without foil, glitter or shiny coating so it can be composted or recycled. I like to add something handmade and festive made out of paper, like a paper snowflake.
The bag, tissue paper (100% tissue paper) and the snowflake can all be used again for next year. All these materials can also either be recycled into your blue bin, put into your green compost bins or composted for your garden!
Here are some wrapping paper options:
You can cut up some of the brown bags or use newspaper.
If you want to keep this 100% sustainable, instead of using plastic tapes, use paper packaging tape, which can be recycled.
You can also use Elmer’s glue or glue sticks, which are biodegradable.
I like to tie it with some twine to make it look pretty, instead of using plastic ribbon or ribbon that has glitter or shine (that can’t be recycled). Twine on the other hand is compostable!
Here is where your garden can come in, by cutting something from it, like a smell good herb like rosemary, a dried flower, or even putting some of the millions of acorns that have fallen across our city to use as decorations instead of using plastic bows, stickers, etc.